South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1887-06-17
GLOVE MAKING.
Facts About the anunacture
or Hand Coverings.
Where Four-Fifths Of All American-Made
Glove, are Produced


Nobody, so far as we know, has ever
disputed the proposition that one half Of
the world does not know how the other
half lives; and VIC have little fear of
contradiction when VIC make bold to
declare that probably one-half of the
people of the United States do not know
where their gloves come from. OF course
it is generally known that gloves of fine
kid, such as ladies wear, and gloves of
certain form which fashion prescribes
for men, are brought from abroad; but
whence comes the great supply OF all the
other glovcsl The answer would not be
very far wrong il ono were to say from
Fulton County. New York. Four-fifths
OF tho gloves made in America, it is es.
,imated, are manufactured in the county
named, and the manufactures which
make gloves elsewhere are in great rart
the chll iren OF Fulton County. indebted
to her for their nurture and their estab-
lishmcnt in life.
The headquarters OF the glove.mak.
ing industry in Fulton County are forty.
five miles northwest of Albany. in
Johnstown township. The villages of
G.ovcrsyiilc and Johnstown, in that
township, contain population of about
twenty thousand. seven-eighths OF
whom are glove makers. There are up-
ward Of one hundred and fifty Glove
manufactures in the section. Glove
making in what is now Fulton County
was begun early in the present century.
Upon the passing away OF Sir William
johnson, the famou, Indian agent OF
colonial times, and of his son Sir John
JEALOUS Tsry who fought fierceIy for
King George the Dutch farmers of the
neighborhood looked about for some
better means of support than were
offered TO them by the soil, which was
not lifted for husbandry, although there
was good grazing land upon the stony
hil!-'ides. a shrewd family from Con-
neciicut arc probably credited with in
Producing into the neighborhood the
manufacture Of buckskin gloves. There
was In the convenient North Wood, in
those days supply of material for this
manufacture so great that nobody
would have thought it could ever be ex-
hausted, but the demand of the Ameri-
can people for gloves proved to be still
greater, aud the North Woods deer
ceased to be depended upon by the
Fulton County glove makers years ago.
To-day the gloves manufactured in
Gioversvilic and Johnstown are made
OF skins brought from the most distant
parts OF the globe. The great bulk arc
buckskins and sheep skins, but there are
many Others which the glove makers
Ese-among them seal skin, dog skin,
East India cowhidc, and the skin of the
south American water hog. The bulk
of the buckskiu comes from Mexico and
Central and South America. The deer
OF the tropics is covered with heavier
skin than covers the deer Of these lati
tudcs, and the finest sheep skin comes
from South Africa, aud is that of the
Cape hair skeep. "The coarscr the
wool, the finer the skim" is glove
makers saying. All manner OF furs, too,
so to Fulton County, to be used in fin
ishing the gloves.
The business of glove making in Full
ton County amounts to about eight mil
lion dollars yearly. The wages of the
most skilful woIkcrs-the table cutters.
as they arc callcd-run from sixty 10
eighty dollars month; block cutters
get from fitty-fve to sixty five dollars
monthly, and machine girls earn, ac-
cording to their skill, from six dollars
to twelve and even fourteen dollars a
week.
The skins of which gloves are made
go through very exhaustive variety OF
processes. Some Of them arc soaked in
ya;s varioua'y from three days to four
weeks, after which they get a scraping
from the "bcam' worker. They are
then dried into parchment, then soaked
in water, then ''miIIcd' in oil then put
upon the beam again AMI secured of oil
and natural grease with alkal, being
repeatedly dried in the course of this
various treatment. After tho alkali
securing they are put upon the "breok
ing machine, and are then "hand-
stakci' with blunt tool to render
them pliabc. Then they go on to the
Chuck TAIL or emery wheel, and from
there into the identical oil and natural
grease Of which they were secured with
such pains. Then they are wrung out
and cplorcd, then again "broke-stak cd"
AMI ''finisho J., +" then smoked, and then
turned over to tho glove-makers, who
promptly stake" them again, cut them
either on the block or by hand ("tablo"
nutinD, silk" them, sew them, do
much else to them, put buttons on them,
DC them over metal hands heated by
steam, sort them, and put them up in
.hc plstcboard boxes in which they arc
sen, to market. The gloves made in
Fulton county arc Of all sorts, and range
from lady's kid to the cowboys
gauntlet splendid with tasscls and gold
cord. IIrpcr's Bizrr.